Back To This Place I Once Knew
by wellhelloitsme
Summary: Marauder-centric. James sort of muses about death. Rated T for death and dying. One shot, just drabbling. Because I'm bored and trying to depress myself, apparently.


**Messy? Yes. Very much so.**

**Credit to J.K. Rowling for creating the great genuine genious that is Harry Potter and all of it's characters.**

**And Lemony Snicket, a phrase which here means I should probably admit that 'a phrase which here means' is not an invention of my genious mind, but Lemony Snicket's. **

**This became a very serious piece of writing, and I didn't mean it too. I'm sorry. =P If you don't like downer stories, I don't suggest you read this.**

**If you do read this, I suggest you review and tell me how much of a downer story it is.**

**Back To This Place I Once Knew**

The Marauders were exceptionally upset. There's something about your schoolyard friends being dead, even if one betrayed you. Hell, they'd be upset if they all betrayed eachother. It's just depressing knowing that those kids you hung out with..they're all dead. And you are too.

But they didn't all betray. They didn't back-stab eachother. Maybe that's what made them such good friends.

Pettigrew did. He betrayed them. He back-stabbed them. Notice how he just wasn't as close to them? The guy who was just..._there_, a phrase which here means nothing more but a follower, who could make a snide joke at times, none very funny, but nonetheless hung around, eventually gaining their trust. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't close to his companions, barely part of their tightly-knit innercircle that led him to where he was today.

In fact, now they prefered referring to him as 'that rat', a phrase which here means most untrustworthy, as rats commonly are and a witty little pun on his Animagus form. Normally, they called him Pettigrew. On rare occasion, Peter.

Never Wormtail. Not anymore.

A certain werewolf had just come along, an eccentric young lady trailing behind. Lily cried hard that moment she heard, as did (and he's not fearful of admitting it) Sirius.

Lily cried for the only Marauder she could stand for the longest time. Sirius cried for the cousin who brought light to the world. James didn't cry, but that was only because, maybe, he'd come to terms with death, perhaps. After all, is it not the next great adventure? And the Marauders are -were- all for adventure, of course. No, he couldn't cry over an adventure. It was a most unpleasent feeling though, to know he had died, they all had died.

Instead, he comforted Lily.

Remus comforted Tonks, biting back tears himself. Not for himself, no, or even Tonks. The tears they shed were for Teddy. So young, now going into the world on his own. He knew that his son would never know him, and it was harshly affecting both of them. They knew they could trust Andie and the younger survivors of the war, but they'd really have rather it be them that watch him take his first steps, teach him how to read, how to make all the girls in school fall for him...

But that was probably more Sirius' territory, anyways.

They'd been there in their bittersweet reunion, a phrase which here means that they're all happy to see eachother but they are all, most unfortunately, utterly dead which put an edge to the almost happy reunion.

They found themselves being uprooted from their spots and almost traveling, though the feeling was strange, a phrase which here means as though they were traveling a far distance in a short amount of time, a feeling not uncomparable to a portkey.

They arrived one at a time. James was first, and first to see his son.

After seventeen years, it was hard to talk to his son, a phrase that does not mean so much as awkward, like talking to an old relative that you haven't seen in awhile usually following with most uncomfortable slobbery kisses and cheek-pinching but more meaning he couldn't find the words to say. Lily followed, as did Sirius and Remus.

They gazed around them at the Forbidden Forest, though noticing that Tonks was not with them, putting Remus on unease.

"You're almost there," James said. "We are so...so very proud of you."

Lily enveloped Harry in a hug.

"Does it hurt?" Harry asked, with wide, scared eyes, once Lily let go of him. He looked torn, a phrase which here means wanting to take it back and wanting to know the answer.

Something twisted inside James stomach. He's much to young to die.

"Dying?" Sirius inquired. "No, it's quicker and easier than falling asleep."

Very true. The killing curse is nothing more than a neverending spell of sleep. But you leave behind friends, family...James knew this all too well, a phrase which here means that he'd most likely like nothing more than to be unexperienced in that catagory.

Maybe dying's not what hurts, but the aftermath of it.


End file.
